Our Night at the Navy Inn

Some of the girls and I decided to stop in at the Navy Inn to see if we could find some locals to talk to. The group of guys we met ha some very interesting insights to our questions. When we asked them about their own culture, one young man responded that, "culture is based on the mindset of the people and it can change based on the individuals experiences and opinions." The basic consensus about British culture from the men, was that they were sure they had a British culture, they just didn't notice it, so they couldn't pinpoint specific things about their own culture. Although, one of the guys said that in comparison to Americans, British people were more generous. He said that Americans were more stingy with their money and self-centered. However, this is just a generalization from one person. When questioned about history, the guys said that America didn't have any history, in fact, the man said, "Basically the pilgrims left from here to go to America, the twin towers blew up and that's it." I was baffled that this man thought he could wrap up my entire country's history in that one sentence. I said what about the American Revolution or the Civil War? He said, well the American was you fighting us and the Civil War was you fighting each other, where is the history in that? I then asked him about the first man to land on the moon because he was an American. The man said yes but what language did he speak? I said English. And the man said, "See his ancestors were British." Basically he thought that all American history had direct ties back to England, and it wasn't really our own. The same man also said that he would rather follow U.S. politics than British.

During this same day I also made a discovery on my own about the meaning of another British greeting. I walked into the train station area to ask someone for help in getting some information. When I walked in the man said to me, "Are you alright?" I was a little confused and said yes I just have a couple questions. I left and told the girls what he said to me, and I laughed thinking I must have looked really confused or distraught to him, for him to ask me if I was alright. Then, when I was at the Navy Inn, I walked by a person and they asked me if I was okay. This started to get to me, because my interpretation was that I looked like something was wrong with me for these people to keep asking me if I was okay. Then it occurred to me, this must be the equivalent greeting for our American way of saying, "How are you?" When I made this connection, everything made better sense to me. In the States, I think if someone were to ask me, "Are you alright?" they would be inquiring if something appeared wrong. But here in the U.K. they are just simply saying hello and greeting me.